Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Serve Grace

Next week I'll be at Camp Bridgeport with Linus (elementary kids). It's always a fun week of silliness. Each kid is assigned to a Family Group, about 20 students from various churches, for Bible study and relevant activities and games. They also sign up for Interest Groups, which is more traditional camp-type stuff (swimming, archery, hiking, etc.). And adults sign up to help with these activities.

I received an email the other day from one of the Camp Directors asking me to sign up for which Interest Group I'd like to lead. The past couple of years I have worked on the camp newspaper, but it's always iffy if enough kids will sign up for that. I volunteered for Board Games, or "anything that meets inside." So I'll be worn out on Uno by next Friday!

We have lots of opportunities here at Grace to sign up for as well. Our Lay Leadership Team, one time called Nominations, recently revamped our Serve Grace form to help facilitate more folk in ministry. What was once a many-page form is now only a couple of pages. It can be filled out online in less than 10 minutes. So whatever your interest is, I urge you to let us know so we can plug you in. The most frustrating thing is to have great gifts to offer but no one ever reaches out. Fill out the form. It's also frustrating to need help and not know who has the skills! Fill out the form. Here's the link. Please click it and complete the Serve Grace form. Even if you are not new here. Even if you're already doing stuff. It will help us better organize, recruit, and train folk to serve. Thank you.

On another note, I want to give parents a heads-up for next Sunday, July 16. You know we've been rolling through Genesis this summer, with an emphasis on narrative preaching (more of a story telling approach). On the 16th we'll look at some very disturbing stories of sexual violence and incest (Genesis Chapters 19, 34, 38). They are stories that need to be told-- sexual violence is often a taboo subject and ignoring it enables abuse to continue. But we also want to be sensitive to small ears. So during the sermon time we'll have special activities for the kiddos. At 8:30 they can go to the Nursery. At 11:00 Miss Janet will offer an activity in a Sunday school classroom. Please do not stay home from church; in fact, if you have older kids and youth this is a vital message for them.

At Bridgeport, next week's forecast looks sunny, clear, and hot, so any rainy thoughts you could muster would be appreciated!

Get link

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Google+

Email

Other Apps

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Note: this sermon was shared at the funeral for John Oestmann today. I offer it here for those unable to attend the service, but also for anyone who has struggled with an untimely loss of a loved one. I first met
John Oestmann when I became the pastor at Prosper United Methodist eight years
ago. And did this guy make an impression! It isn’t often that I am made to feel
small around others—but John was a giant in every way you can imagine. People
always say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Well, that was never truer than
when one considers our husband, father, brother, son, and friend, John. Many of
us might have crossed the street when we saw this large, tattooed, sometimes
Mohawked man approaching us. And if we did cross that road, we would miss out
on knowing one of the best, most genuine, most dependable men we would ever
meet. But the lasting impression John gave had little to do with his appearance
and everything to do with the way he lived his life. One of my favorite lines
f…

Note: I offered these words during the prayer section of worship Sunday, December 16.

Last Friday was a day full of surprising ministry. After I wrote my usual Friday email devotion to the church, I received a call from Byron Proutt, our missions coordinator. He and others had recently partnered with Park Cities Presbyterian on a project, and their missions director called Byron to say another ministry was unable to pick up several boxes of food for their pantry—could we use it? Of course we could! So Pastor Gregg, Mr Johnny, and I rolled out to the warehouse and hauled back 80 boxes of food. Praise God! After we unloaded it Gregg and I went to Kroger to give them a letter of appreciation for making our Thanksgiving baskets for hungry families a priority. After I dropped Gregg off at home, I turned on my radio for the first time that day and heard the reports of the shootings in Newtown, Conn. I could not believe what I heard, especially as a father of young children.

This week my former high school band director, Mr Reinke, died. Mr Reinke is a legend in my hometown of Bay City. He was the leader of our Black Cat Band for many years. He was a fiery man, a perfectionist with extremely high standards. He was a gifted musician. He and I both played the trombone; one of us sounded like a goose being strangled. The other sounded like... well I can't think of a metaphor to properly describe Mr Reinke's horn. It was amazing. He would pull that thing out occasionally to show us how to properly play a part of a song and the sound was spellbinding.
Mr Reinke was very innovative in his music selections. He had us playing the most random music, from popular stuff of the day by Michael Jackson to Also Sprach Zarathustra (popularly known as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey) to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. This song in particular was a great choice-- it's amazing, complicated; however, this was the late 1980s. The song was originally released…